


The Stormseeker: The Story of Lexen Chelseer

by Serriya (Keolah)



Series: Stormseeker Saga: Alternate Timelines [1]
Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Card Games, Dimension Travel, Flying Monkeys, Gen, Mary Sue, POV Original Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1995-01-01
Updated: 1995-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-13 17:38:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/506035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Serriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lexen is the illegitimate son of Darth Vader, and he doesn't care one bit about anyone's warnings about the dark side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Stormseeker: The Story of Lexen Chelseer

**Author's Note:**

> This is the earliest version of Lexen's story, which has since been rewritten as the [Stormseeker Saga](http://archiveofourown.org/series/25420).

It was a new generation, when Keli's grandchildren walked Lezaria and explored their youth in the Realms of the Elkandu. Anara's firstborn son, Lexen, had decided to spend a few years in the world of his father, while his cousins Helga and Hilda stayed in the world of their father. Torn Elkandu thus knew a few fleeting years of peace.

Lexen found himself stranded on a desolate world called Tatooine, not far from his ignorant half-brother Luke. He was thirteen at the time, having just inherited the Zarnith from his mother, and Luke was a couple years younger. Finding the deserts boring, Lexen wandered about, unwittingly picking fights with Sand People, who, after seeing Zarnith clip a few of them down, decided to find easier targets.

Using a little of the Elkandu magic he had picked up at home, Lexen located a human resident of these parts and made his way to his cave. The old man who lived there was more than a little surprised at finding someone out this far on foot (and still alive), but he greeted the boy pleasantly enough.

"What brings you out into the Jundland Wastes, son?" inquired the man.

"I'm not your son," he remarked. "I got bored. Besides, this dust-ball is the stupidest world I've ever had the displeasure of being stranded upon."

Lexen was rather proud of his vocabulary, but the old man didn't seem to notice, or at least care. This nettled him a bit, but he shrugged it off as idiosyncracy.

"Then whose son are you, boy? And what is your name?"

"Lexen. My mother is Anara Chelseer. My father is Anakin Skywalker."

The old man froze at this, almost astonished to hear the words. "You're Anakin Skywalker's son?" he murmured. "How is that possible? Luke is his son."

"Luke is my half-brother," Lexen insisted. It did not surprise him that this old man knew his father and brother. He knew his family was famous on many worlds.

"Lexen Skywalker," mused the man. "But for the hair and eyes, you look just like him. I'm Ben Kenobi."

"Is it true that my father now goes by the name Darth Vader, and is really evil and stuff?"

Ben gave him a look that was almost a withering glare, but he could not deny what Lexen said. "It is true. Where did you learn that?"

"My mother has been keeping tabs on him. She told me." Lexen almost felt homesick, but then he realized that it was only a desire to get off Tatooine and go someplace more interesting. "I don't think it's very nice, being evil and all. Hey, don't you know the magic of this universe? Jedi Force stuff? I'd rather be off this world, but I'll stay here if you teach me."

Ben didn't fail to pick up his slip of the tongue, but he knew Lexen's desire to learn was honest. "It will take many years to master the Force, boy."

"I'm patient," he said. "I can wait. I'm really good at learning. I've been learning all my life. I love learning."

From a thirteen-year-old boy, such statements almost sounded by blasphemy to the children's creed, but he was completely truthful about them, and Ben realized that.

"All right, Lexen Skywalker," Ben smiled. "I'll teach you the ways of the Force."

One of the things that amazed Ben Kenobi was the Zarnith, so like a lightsaber in many ways. Yet Lexen proved an avid learner, and he seemed to Ben to be so completely committed to the light side of the Force that there was no chance of his turning to evil. In the three years he stayed with Ben on Tatooine, he learned a great deal and became a powerful Jedi.

Finally, Lexen decided that he had spent too much time on that ball of dust. He stowed away on a freighter, thus through guile buying his way out of the system. By the time the crew discovered him, they were already in hyperspace and couldn't just turn back and drop him off. They decided to employ him (persuaded by a subtle demonstration of the Force) so he could pay for his passage with his service. Lexen Skywalker merely smiled and didn't bother arguing.

"Where is this ship going, anyway?" asked Lexen finally.

"Kessel," replied the captain indifferently.

Lexen had never heard of the place, but assumed it would be more interesting than Tatooine. However, during the Astakal Griffin's entire stay there, Lexen was tied up (more or less literally) by a large quantity of cables. He had been trying to show his nonexistant prowess with engineering, but it rapidly became fairly obvious that his skill level was decidedly negative. By the time Captain Orhhahh found him and managed to untangle him, it was time to leave.

"Oh, well," muttered Lexen. "I probably didn't miss much anyway."

Even after he comprehended the clandestine nature of their operation, he wanted to stay on because such things fascinated him, he being a Chelseer and all. Orhhahh kept insisting that he would stay at the next system they entered, but Lexen's prowess lay in the Force and the Elkandu magic, so there was no chance of him being forced to do anything he did not wish to do.

Once interesting incident occured while the Griffin was docked at Captain Orhhahh's homeworld, Sfweekwee. It was only then that Lexen realized that the captain was a Zephyl, one of the flying monkeys from Lezaria. He had been so used to alien beings, here and at home, that it had passed right over his head.

Apparently, the Lezarian Zephyli had colonized this world of Sfweekwee. It was a highly technized world, with cities deep underground and in the air, and the native forests growing between them.

"I hadn't realized you Zephyli had such a civilization," commented Lexen while Orhhahh was kindly showing him the sights of Sfweekwee.

Orhhahh was startled. "Zephyli? Wee haven't gone by that name for centurees. Where deed you heer that?"

"I thought you were always called Zephyli, no matter what world you're on."

"Wee call ourselves Sfeelee, wheech ees a newer version of thee old word Zephyli."

"Sfeelee," repeated Lexen. "I can see how it follows. When was Sfweekwee colonized?"

"So long ago that no one can reemember," replied Orhhahh ruefully. "E'e'sfeeka kohhha'ksee ro'o'lahh."

"What's that mean?"

"If you ever learn to understand that saying," the Sfeelee told him, "you will understand our entire race."

With that cryptic statement, Orhhahh left him to sightsee on his own.

Lexen located and commandeered a protocol droid to help him translate the Sfeelee language. The droid was rather proficient in it, he boasted, but really an organic translator would have been better. The droid had a habit of translatic the idiomatic Sfeelee language a bit too literally.

When Lexen asked the droid, whose named was G-2VR, he translated it, "My two-sided wings are made up of feathers and fur."

Lexen thought he had the gist of it, but wasn't entirely certain. No matter. He was Elkandu. He had all eternity to learn to understand these people. Somehow that made him feel just a little bit better.

Years later, after unloading some cargo somewhere he couldn't remember, Lexen took over the ship. Really he was only borrowing it from its owner, Orhhahh, but for many years thereafter he was its captain.

"I bet you couldn't beat me at a game of Magic," Lexen told Orhhahh that day.

"I can beet you at anee card game you could breeng out," boasted Orhhahh.

"Would you be willing to bet your ship on that?" Lexen continued.

"I ain't giving up my Griffin for aneetheeng!" he exploded.

"So you really aren't that good."

"I am the besst carrd player this side of the galatic corre!"

Which Lexen doubted, but he didn't bother pointing that out.

"Oh, well," Lexen sighed. "I guess I'll just have to find another opponent. I may get rusty, you know."

"Show mee the carrds and the rrules and I'll play."

The boy pulled out his two decks and the rulebook and handed them to the captain. After skimming the rules, Orhhahh was confident he could best Lexen. The Jedi Elkandu was even so generous as to suggest that Orhhahh choose which of the two decks to use.

To Lexen's favor, he did not cheat on that first game, either in the shuffling or the playing, but he won because Orhhahh had never played before. Beginner's luck did not hold true with Magic: The Gathering, especially when Orhhahh had chosen the green-black deck, while Lexen was playing red-white. Both were mismatched combinations, but Lexen had found more luck in his Sunburn deck than in his Life and Death deck. He also enjoyed playing Bruise, Fire and Water, and Good.

After about twelve games, Orhhahh still couldn't win, and Lexen was still playing completely fair. "Thees ees reedeeculous! Ees thees game unbeetable? Let mee play that deck, then."

So they played another half-dozen games, and Lexen was still undefeated.

"I geeve up. I can't ween thees. Tell you what, keed. You can have the sheep, but I get the cards. I'll bee back to ween after I master it myself. I say eet's a good game."

So Orhhahh left Lexen with the Astakal Griffin, free to explore the galaxy at his leisure. During those years, he flew from one end of the galaxy to the other, visiting many of the fairly important worlds. He got rich off the smuggling and gambling business. He frequented Tatooine infrequently, stopping to say hello to Luke or Ben, though they were busy (sort of) doing their own things.

Lexen had an unfortunate incident on Alderaan involving four guys and a blaster. It was really more of an irritation to the Elkandu Jedi, however, than a danger as it was meant to be. Indeed, the men were all native Alderaanians, as he learned after he fried all of them, but he never did learn why they tried to kill him. It was a kind of puzzlement set aside to mull over when he was bored.

Then he heard rumor of a super battle station constructed by the Empire that could destroy an entire world. He was angry then, because no one should have that kind of power except the combined force of the Elkandu. He ordered his crew to go there immediately.

To Lexen's eyes, the Death Star was incredibly large, the size of a world in itself. He simply could not believe that mortals were able to construct such a weapon. Then he decided that the Empire couldn't use it if he gained control of it himself.

He requested to come on board the station, saying that he needed to talk to Darth Vader, which he did, who was his father, which he was.

A bunch of guys wearing stupid armor escorted Lexen into the presence of the Dark Lord, which he thought was totally unnecessary. How could they stop him if he decided to do something precipitous?

"You are my son?" wondered Darth Vader, skepticism obvious.

"You remember Anara Chelseer?" asked the boy.

"She is your mother?"

"She is."

"But she disappeared, right off the ship. We thought she was dead."

"She used her Elkandu magic to teleport to the Nexus in Torn Elkandu," Lexen explained.

"Elkandu magic? Nexus? Torn Elkandu? Where are these places?"

"It doesn't matter. They are very far from here."

"What is Elkandu magic?" demanded Vader.

"The Elkandu are a group of people, much like the Jedi Knights, who have abilities that others consider arcane or magical."

"Oh. I see. Then why are you here?"

"Why ask a boy why he wants to be with his father?" Lexen smiled his evil smile, showing his evil father the dark side he had been careful never to show Ben Kenobi. Lexen Chelseer could be very evil when it suited him.

They talked for a long while, catching up on lost time. Then Lexen steered the conversation in the direction of the Death Star.

"What are you planning to do with this thing anyway? You're not actually going to use it are you?"

"We intend to make an example of what will happen to those who oppose the Empire, and also to crush the Rebellion."

"It makes one wonder why they are rebelling in the first place," commented Lexen.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I was told that the best way to deal with a rebellion is to make sure they have no reason to rebel. Give them a little of what they want, even if just to confuse them a bit. Usually people rebel for a good reason, though sometimes they do it just for the heck of it."

"What are you proposing?" Darth Vader was certainly puzzled by now. He had never heard such preposterous ideas in his life.

"If a man declares himself King of the Galaxy, but doesn't make any demands, no one is going to argue with him, since the situation is the same one way or the other. If a man does this and promises order and peace in the galaxy, people are going to support him. If he taxes the worlds heavily and conscripts its people, certainly some people are not going to like that and go against him. If he sets loose a weapon that can destroy entire planets, though they fear him, people would rather die than live under such a man."

"How can you run an Empire without troops or ships? How can you fund it without taxing the worlds under its rule?"

"Militarism is not the solution, father," Lexen stated. "Rather, ask for volunteers. If you really think you need troops, make them sound like the best vocation possible, then ask for volunteers. Thus, people will be proud to serve the Empire, and any rebellions would be small and futile."

He didn't like what his son was saying, but he had to admit that it did make some sense. "We've always done it this way."

"So long you never ask yourselves if there might be a better way."

"I thought at first that you might have already turned to the dark side," commented Vader, "but I see now that this cannot be the case."

"Lezarians usually don't distinguish between good and evil," Lexen told him. "The Elkandu magic has no dark side or light side. It simply is."

"What is this Elkandu magic you keep talking about? Could you demonstrate it, perhaps?"

"In the Lezarian form, my name is Stormseeker," the boy said. "I am called that because I inherited power of a certain disipline from my grandfather Silver."

"Disipline?"

"It's a general term. There are seventeen areas of Elkandu magic, some considered more toward what is generally considered good, some more evil. I inherited the power of Kharina, and also a great deal of power from Khan as well."

"What are Kharina and Khan?" asked Vader. Lexen took silent gratification in the fact that he was an expert in something of which his father was ignorant.

"Lightning and Fire," Lexen translated. "Also called Fire and Storm. Hence my name." He lifted his left hand, and a bolt of lightning lept from his fingertips to crackle along the ceiling beam. "Silver was stronger in it than I, but I inherited the potential for other powers beside, including Fawnd, Ti, and even a little Kyeda, one of the rarest of the disiplines."

"Translate, please," Vader said impatiently, the polite word almost an insult in the tone he used.

"Seeking, Wind, and Changing."

"What do you mean, Changing?"

"It was labeled evil and its practice outlawed long ago on my homeworld," Lexen told him. "That is why I haven't been allowed to study it as I have the others. It refers to the alteration of an object or person into a different physical and often mental form."

"I don't think I understand."

"If I had been trained in Changing, if my potential were strong enough, I might be able to just stand here and will you to be a rock, and you would be a rock."

"I can see how such a power would be feared," Darth Vader rumbled, starting to give this boy a measure of respect. "But why did they outlaw it?"

"There was a woman on Lezaria who had the strongest Changing power seen in a long time, and it was only Partial Transformation. The ancient city-states used her power to create horrific mutants that put to shame any of this universe's aliens. They were part human, yet part animal as well. A great war was waged using these creatures, and when it was over the city-states ran them out of town and hid their origins. Generations later, when the people had forgotten what had happened, another woman appeared whose Changing power was the strongest Lezaria had ever seen, Complete, Instant Transformation. They tried to use her like they had used the previous woman, but she refused and went berzerk, transforming anyone who came close enough. The population fled to the next continent and to the islands, abandoning that continent completely. Thus they banned Changing and the teaching thereof, though it be perhaps the second or third rarest of the Seventeen Powers."

"An interesting story. Is it true?" asked Vader.

"Yes. The Elkandu investigated the matter. It all happened."

"This power exists, then, that can turn people into monsters at will?"

"As much as the Force exists, father," replied Lexen. "But the teachings have been lost, so even minor transformations are very difficult to accomplish."

"What are your Seventeen Powers, anyway?"

"Oh, Fire, Lightning, Earth, Wind, Water, Seeking, Healing, Changing, Ice, Future-Seeing, Speech, Mind, Dream, Illusion, Necromancy," Lexen halted, thinking a moment. He was out of practice of the Elkandu Powers, being in the world where the Force was more common. "Security, and Motion. Everything belongs to one or more of these powers."

"That's very interesting." Vader began to walk away, but Lexen followed him, shadowing him, as he would do for a while yet.

There were three levels an Elkandu in another world could operate upon: Observation, Exploration, and Participation. The Elkandu prefered its people to stay as low on that scale as possible, and occasionally made a gesture of punishing those who were, for example, responsible for the entire world being destroyed. But Alternativity prevailed above all, so the Elkandu were not concerned about such timelines overall.

"Where are you going, father?"

Darth Vader was heading to board a Star Destroyer. "A set of plans for the Death Star has been stolen. I mean to capture the rebels responsible and retrieve the data tapes."

"I'll go with you," Lexen offered. "You may need my help."

"All right."

Indeed, they may not have succeeded by for Lexen's efforts. He played an integral role in the capture of the ship, which he was only doing because he felt like it anyway, which was the only reason for an Elkandu to do anything.

They captured a woman called Princess Leia, who Lexen knew was his half-sister, but he was extremely careful to keep this information from their mutual father. He was disturbed by their methods of forcing her to give out information, but his half-hearted efforts to dissuade them went unheard. Finally he thought of a better method for getting her to talk.

"Threaten to blow up Alderaan," he suggested to his father. "But don't actually blow it up. If you keep that threat on her homeworld long enough, she's bound to say something."

They went along with his plan, up to a point. But that point was reached, and the idiots actually blew up Alderaan! To Lexen this was the most spectacularly foolish thing possible to do. And he was pissed.

He assumed Tarkin was responsible, so he decided to take on his anger on him.

"I said, don't actually blow it up, you three-toed son of a Flylander!" Lexen shouted. "Now I'll have to do something precipitous, and I know you won't like it."

Lexen then used his lightning power to make Tarkin unbelievably miserable without actually killing him. Finally Darth Vader had to come in and persuade him to stop before Tarkin died of pain or something. Lexen dropped him rudely to the deck, his eyes the colors of fire.

"Never disobey me again," he said quietly, dangerously, in such a tone that no one could fail to understand him. With that he left.

He really did not care if Tarkin was not solely responsible for the destruction of Alderaan as opposed to just the threat thereof. He had to take out his anger on someone, at least, and Tarkin was available and not really innocent. But he was not turned to the dark side because of his actions because he had used Elkandu powers, not the Force. Or something like that. But he was a Chelseer, so he really didn't care anyway.

He went up to some important place whose name he didn't remember. "We've captured a small freighter that was entering the remains of Alderaan. A standard check indicates that its markings match those of the ship that blasted its way out of the quarantine at Mos Eisley, Tatooine system, and went hyper before Imperial blockade craft there could close on it."

Tarkin's following confusion was largely due to Lexen's previous harsh treatment of him. Darth Vader had to explain a few things to him.

Lexen decided henceforth to use the Observation technique, though it only worked until he came up with an idea. And a damned good idea it was, he told himself. In private, he informed Vader of it.

"I was thinking of that myself," muttered Vader. Lexen stifled an interior laugh when he sensed that it was not true.

"I really want to see this," Lexen told him. "I'll make myself invisible. You'll be able to sense me, and so will anyone else strong enough in the Force, but to all intents and purposes I won't be here. I'd just like to watch this."

Vader nodded his approval as Lexen put up the illusion, moving ghostlike toward the docking bay.

In fact, Lexen was not precisely invisible. To some eyes, he appeared to be a stormtrooper who had every right to be there, or a maintenance worker, or even a janitor. He appeared to be someone whose presence was not unusual in any way. Only when the presence of anyone would be unusual was he truly invisible. It was a trick he had learned partly from Ben Kenobi and partly from Silver.

Though he ended up participating a little more than the Elkandu would have wished him to, he did obtain a high degree of entertainment from the venture.

To make a long story short, Luke and some pirate rescued Princess Leia from a garbage compactor. A big hairy alien with them attracted the attention of a few million stormtroopers, Lexen among them, which the scruffy dude attacked for no apparent reason. Then Luke swung across a chasm on a rope, rescuing the beautiful Princess. Or something like that. It was rather confused, and Lexen couldn't be everywhere at once. He somehow ended up among the stormtroopers guarding the hangar, when, to his surprise, Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader appeared in the midst of a duel!

Lexen did not like that, since one of them would have to die or worse, and he didn't want to lose either of them. He screamed and shot his blaster at Vader, practically melting his red lightsaber. Of course, few things can stand being blasted like that. With Vader incapacitated (probably dead) Ben attacked the stormtroopers, Lexen helping. Though he appeared to be wearing armor, he was really unprotected. Ben managed to get to the freighter to escape, followed by a badly wounded Lexen. He had been shot many times, only surviving because of his Elkandu stamina.

"Lexen!" shouted Ben and Luke and Leia at the same time. Of course they all recognized him, each having met him sometime earlier.

"You know him?" said nearly everybody.

"I think I just disrupted the timeline," muttered a barely conscious Lexen.

"He's your brother," Ben said. Lexen was not sure if he was talking to Luke, Leia, or both.

Lexen was in a great deal of pain. "Oh, Abyss, I feel like dying!"

He really didn't care to go through that kind of agony again, but then he felt his consciousness slipping away. His eyes closed, and he felt nothing.

Then, suddenly, he was standing with a blaster amid stormtroopers, Vader and Kenobi fighting before him. He hadn't the faintest idea what had just happened. He should have been dead. Then he realized that he had jumped to another timeline, back to the moment when he had made his life-changing decision. This time, it was Ben Kenobi who died. He abruptly understood that at this point in the timeline, one of them had to die. The other timeline would continue with Ben in his place. He accepted that and continued in this timeline.

"NO!!" shouted Luke, then he did something incredibly stupid and started shooting. Lexen had no choice but to merely observe. This time as well, Luke and his companions escaped.

Lexen understood why his father had killed Ben. Without him to lead them, the others would be lost and demoralized. Yet he still couldn't help but thinking there couldn't have been a better way. Then he realized, there was another way, though it was not one he could be a part of.

He watched, detached, as his brother fled from the station, being only given a token chase. Then the ship entered hyperspace, and was gone.

"Did you double-check the homing beacon?" asked Lexen, dropping his illusion.

The answer was a disconcerted affirmative.

"Excellent," he told him, smiling. "Good work."

He couldn't remember later who he had addressed, but the man had seemed confused at the unaccostomed praise.

Lexen left to relocate his father. "Do you know where they're going yet?"

Vader did not reply. His son shrugged and went to see what kind of help he could give and where. It seemed as though everyone were rather confused, partly because he was so different from his father. He gave Tarkin a withering glare as they passed in a corridor, which gave the old guy a few more wrinkles than he had had before.

He finally learned that Yavin was the destination. The rebel base was on the fourth moon. At this point Lexen decided to get off the Death Star and do some surveillance, or something.


End file.
